The exterior surfaces of an automobile are often coated with dirt, mud, snow, salt, sludge, chemicals, and other debris, hereinafter collectively referred to as "soils". These soils collect most predominately along the outer sill panel, or sometimes referred to as the lower rocker panel, of the automobile where the tires tend to discharge. Upon entering and exiting the passenger compartment of the automobile, a person's shoes or clothes, such as a pant leg or overcoat, frequently brush against the outer sill panel. This causes a transfer of the soils collected along the outer sill panel onto the person's clothes.
This problem is compounded when the vehicle has a high ground clearance, such as with the sport/utility type vehicles, when it is difficult to plant one's foot a safe distance from the automobile to prevent clothing contact with the outer sill panel. Also, physically impaired and elderly persons often do not have the muscle strength needed to step into and out of an automobile from a safe distance so as to prevent clothing contact with the outer sill panel. A similar problem arises for most people when loading and unloading cargo items through the doorway in an automobile. When the cargo item is heavy or particularly fragile, or when placing children in car seats and the like, it is difficult to maintain sufficient body spacing from the vehicle exterior so as to prevent pant legs and overcoats from contacting the protruding edge of the outer sill panel which may be covered with soils. Likewise, when loading and unloading cargo items into the trunk compartment or rear hatch area, a person's legs and midsection often brush against the dirty rear bumper.
To help reduce the collection of soils along the exterior of the automobile, the prior art has long taught the use of fender attached mud guards to block and deflect discharge from the front tires. While this treatment is somewhat effective, it will not completely prevent the collection of soils along the protruding edge of the outer sill panels. Hence, it is inevitable that a person's clothing will become soiled as a result of contact with the dirty automobile exterior. Furthermore, mud guards are considered unattractive by many people and can spoil the aesthetic appearance of the automobile exterior.